Archive for August 2006

Well I have taken on the task of helping to transition a java website to Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0. It’s more of a port but there is a lot of work to do. The first consideration was the database. MySQL to Microsoft SQL. I found a great utility that took a lot of time out of scripting the transfer. There is a great little utility out there called MySQLtoMSSQL from a company called Intelligent Converters. It does the job nicely if you can connnect to MySQL through ODBC..

Being a developer, the demo version did all I need it would only import the first five rows of data but that was just fine for me. I really needed just to get sample data and the structure over. I am going to have the company by this product when we do the final move over to automate the process. I love the fact that this product as a demo gives the right amount of functionality.

After I got the database ported I detached it using SQL Express Management Studio, I can’t tell you how easy the free Management Studio is to work with. It has great value, Thank you Microsoft for giving us this! I was then able to take the detached MDF file and drop it into my visual web developer studio project. This project is actually an “Atlas” project. Again thanks to two free products (can you believe Microsoft gives away a fully functional visual studio for web development?? Yeah they do wow!) Anyway, I installed the Microsoft “Atlas” projects and control toolkit into the visual studio project before dropping in the database. When I dropped the database in it added a special asp.net folder called the app_data folder. Then I was ready to go..

Atlas is important because it is a free toolkit that lets you create applications that have web 2.0 type functionality. It does things like extended drag and drop controls (components) with javascript (AJAX style) so it So things that annoy the user (like screen redraws, end users call them “blinking” pages) will be history. Also the pages seem smarter and can exhibit new functionality.

“Atlas” enables your site to take full advantage of modern browser capabilities.

“Atlas” will work across IE, Firefox, Mozilla, and Safari with no modifications.

“Atlas” includes a client-side Javascript framework for easy script creation and reuse.

“Atlas” makes it super easy to consume services from ASP.NET.

“Atlas” makes building composite applications from the programmable web a snap.

So the next bit of business was adding membership functionality logins to the site. This didn’t take very long at all. Microsoft has done all the work for you with ASP.NET 2.0. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel with the member classes and the set of login and user creation controls. This totally used to take hours in ASP.NET 1.1. Now it just takes minutes.. I really recommend if you are new to asp.net 2.0 that you review the videos on membership and logins at www.asp.net. They will step this through for you nicely.

I used to spend a lot of time dealing with developers and artists that stepped on each other’s work. In languages like PHP and the older ASP it was common to have a web page with script in it inside a line where a graphic was sitting. It took a special artist not to wipe out code when they were asked to make modifications to art etc.. Now with asp.net all of that is completely separated. You can use code behind pages for all the code you will compile. The advantage to compiled code is it’s fast and a lot more secure. The asp.net model separates code from graphics, allowing both work to be done simultaneously for later integration. Artists and programmers get along much better with asp.net.. A graphics change is very fast too (almost immediate not requiring the programmer to visit it).

ASP.NET wisely introduces theming and master pages for designers so you can take a design and implement it using both it’s own skinning and CSS functionality.This makes it easy to control things including setting up navigational elements that are saved in an XML sitemap. The level of customization is quite amazing.

Okay back to the database for a bit.. When porting a website you usually have to have three tiers of functionality

The pages themselves

A data access layer-a standard way for you to access your database from the web pages

A “BuLL” layer aka the business logic layer where all the rules for business and how the site reacts to things are put into play.

Visual Web Developer to the Rescue

ASP.NET presents the user with the idea of “datasets” which allow data out of the database to be accessed in their heirarchies. The dataset designer will actually allow you to create the Data Access Layer in a very standard way, including writing the code in a very standard way to let you exhume any kind of data from the database. If you are using other development environments or older ones you really haven’t seen how cool and time saving it is to use the Visual Web Developer Dataset designer.. Bryan Noyes wrote a great article to get you started with it, and walks you thru creating a fully complete DAL.. Check it out here at the ServerSide.NET.

Developer’s Secret Weapon

If you really want to cut your production time and you need to create a Data layer from an existing database I would have to recommend two products as a SECRET weapon..

CodeSmith Studio Pro and NetTiers, when combined these two products can cut your development time by hundreds of hours…

Codesmith withNetTiers will create a “Microsoft Standards and Practices compliant” data access layer that has all the features of the database in amazingly fast time (you can be done in 15 minutes and have something that is very functional.

Web 2.0 focuses the developer on the design and usibility of a web site. In the next chapter we’ll focus on the UI, adding a Shopping Cart.. Web Application states and wrapping it all together..

Well here we go my first entry in a while. I might as well update you a lot has happened over the past half year. For those who wonder yes I am still awaiting a transplant, but some positive things has spilled over into my life.

The first being I have a new group of really cool people to work with. They comprise the business known as the 9thXchange. I really love it the people are great and we are doing some crazy and wonderful things.

The company is an online store that sells media, media that you make and upload to it.. Isn’t this cool you don’t have to be a big marketing company now to get your own creative works up there and for sale. Now you say, yeah but I can do that on youtube, my space or something else.. huh? What’s so different?? Well 9thX lets you retain your ownership and protects your rights to the files you publish through DRM. Right now these other sites don’t really give you rights on the same level. You can also have your own member sales area..

We think this all is a great idea and so did Microsoft. My project with the company was to create a windows media player version of the store website. That will give the company a national presence. I am pleased to announce that it’s in final testing and our national coming out day is with the release of Windows Media Player 11 for XP on October 3rd, 2006.

Most of the friends I have had are now gone from Michigan or moved on. I really don’t see any of my old friends anymore, but that’s not so bad. I now have been busy making some new ones. You really can tell how your life is changing when you see different people in it. Everything is more positive and forward moving. The drama agents are gone and it’s just quiet now. I am enjoying things very very much. I have time to work and do the things I want to do.

My favorite things..

My favorite thing is to pack up the laptop computer and spend the day at Beaners on washtenaw having coffee and snacks, working and enjoying their free wi-fi.. They are affordable and not packed like StarBucks, and their wifi is again FREE…

How I spent my summer (one time at bandcamp..)

Favorite summer events:

Toronto Pride 2006

Riding in the ‘Pimpmobile with Matt’

Wrestling with a VCR

Pride Parade (HOT HOT OOOH HOT!)

Remington’s (my what a big ___ you have mr wolf!)

Trip to Lansing

Visiting old friends

The “Bloc” Party

Work Dinner at Corabas Italian Restaurant

Finishing up the Media Player Store

Trip to the Necto with ” Tommy Muscles” who was visiting from Atlanta.

Superman Returns in Imax 3D

With summer coming to a close I will remember the fun and excitment of the year.. I wanted to take a moment and tell you that I am writing this using Windows Live Writer a free blog writing application. It rules, it lets me ad pictures, maps, live links and tag everything. It also supports Flickr images (with an add-on) and some other things. It’s also really great about supporting different blogging applications.

I am simultaneously deploying this to Live Journal, Friendster, WordPress, and Community Server, not to mention Windows Live spaces..

It’s a great summer for movies, Superman Returns in imax 3d was amazing. Miami Vice Rocked! Pirates of the Carribean 2 was amazing. I can’t wait for number three.. I also enjoyed Barnyard which as an animated movie had great depth and the animation was very good. They used a program called XSI for most of the animation. I haven’t seen a lot of stuff done lately but this has improved by leaps and bounds over things done with it in the past.

AJAX Everywhere

A small Korean company is shining lately because their cool realtime html editor Noovo designed to run within a web page and will probably cause a small revolution in what people can do with services like “myspace.com” in allowing people to create their own homepages complete with blogs and a scrapbooking style layout and a “ribbon” like the new Microsoft Office 2007.